Big ideas often come in very small films. In Take Shelter, the latest from writer/director Jeff Nichols(Shotgun Stories), nothing less than the end of the world as we know it is at stake. Taking place in a small Ohio town, Curtis LaForce(Michael Shannon) is a man who has it better than most. He has a good job working construction, one that affords him a relatively simple life with his wife Samantha(Jessica Chastain) and 6-year old daughter, Hannah. Not all is perfect, however. Hannah is deaf, whether born that way or through another cause is unknown.
Curtis begins having wild, vivid dreams. Better described as apocalyptic visions. Something terrible is coming. The dark clouds gather and swirl into terrible tornadoes. In Curtis' mind, the rain is a harbinger of doom, brown and acidic. It causes the people around him to do terrible, violent things. The birds swarm ominously in a way Hitchcock would nod in approval of. Curtis, justifiably alarmed, fears not for himself but for his family.
Questions about Curtis' mental state start to make the rounds around town. There's a history of insanity running through his family, and Curtis tangles visibly with the thought he may also be afflicted. As his behavior becomes more volatile, he becomes obsessed with stocking up and fortifying the storm shelter in the backyard. It consumes his life, swallowing up his job, his family, and everything else he holds dear. As Curtis' friendships begin to disappear, and his marriage starts to crumble, all he can wonder about is why nobody else can see the coming disaster?
Much like his paranoia laden turn in William Friedkin's psycho thriller, Bug, Michael Shannon is capable of saying many things with the most subtle of gestures. Curtis' anxieties are presented in an understated fashion, slowly boiling beneath the surface. When Curtis finally blows up(and he does), it's by far the scariest scene of the film. This is what Shannon does best, just as he did opposite Kate Winslet and Leonardo Dicaprio in Revolutionary Road a few years ago, stealing every scene from them with a scalpel-like precision. Jessica Chastain has a less visible role, but she is the quiet strength of the film, just as she was in The Tree of Life.
The ending shouldn't be given away. Don't let anyone spoil it for you. Suffice it to say there are some big questions surrounding the validity of Curtis' visions. What matters is that it all feels real. Like there's a Curtis somewhere in every one of us, wrestling with the same demons and fears.
Maybe that was the point Nichols was trying to make? Regardless, Take Shelter is a film that will be very hard to forget.
